Water in the environment

Water bodies like rivers, streams, lakes and groundwater are known as ‘water in the environment’.

The Environment Agency regulates and controls water in the environment, including:

• abstraction permits to take water from groundwater or rivers
• discharge permits into controlled waters (for example from industry or construction)
• responding to planning applications where water in the environment may be affected
• action on water incidents, for example blue-green algae blooms
• environmental permits for large industrial installations, waste management and disposal facilities and sites with radioactive substances

The Environment Agency is also responsible for flood risk assessment, flood defences and flood alerts.